Ufl 2026

[Paolo_X]

@Maaax

…’s.My three year old J5V was getting thin and the wind was at my back so maybe it doesn’t count, but that day one of my punts went way over the returner’s head and kept on going. It was a real jaw dropper.Funny thing, my foot didn’t FEEL like it hit the ball any harder than usual.Must’ve been a fluke.

This experience, which can also be for a kick, feels most unusual. It feels otherworldly or spiritual too.

When your foot hits the ball to the exact right spot at the right time, it’s like a small explosion, and then that ball seems to take flight on its own.

It’s all the better when you kick a punt with a spiral or when the timing is just right such that the wind takes the ball with it too.

Now how did your coverage team do that day? That’s the real question. It is possible to punt that ball so far and so well that you can outkick your coverage, but they better be in great shape to run farther and faster too anyway.

Alright, back to spring training there ya giant varmint.

[Tedzan_Lord_of_Lions]

@Paolo_X

Keep it positive and motivational, but not delusional, Mike!

[Laxtreme56]

Well it’s that time again. What will the week 1 TV ratings look like? With the new ratings methodology Nielsen is utilizing, sports ratings have seen on average 5-8% increase from previous year. Here’s my week 1 prediction.

Louisville-Birmingham on Fox: The #1 TV market vs the city that’s trending first in google trends currently. I’m afraid this game might get out of reach in the second half but should still see a nice improvement over last seasons opening ratings. 750k

DC-St. Louis on ESPN: Biggest rivalry in the league but the early start might hurt some. Kinda wish this matchup was on Fox as opposed to the Texas Showdown. 575k

Houston-Dallas on Fox: This feels like it should be more of a rivalry than it is. Don’t really expect much offense here and most likely the worst crowd of the weekend. 700k

Orlando-Columbus on ESPN: Primetime in Orlando with a team that seems to be gaining some steam in their market after a bit of a slow start ticket and marketing wise. My pick for game of the week. 620k.

Overall week 1 average: 661.25

[GridironGirl]

ok here we go week 1

i don’t know anything about any of these teams other than DC Defenders are the defending champs (lol), and the team they beat, the Michigan Panthers, no longer exist.

All Schedule Events

i’ll randomly cheer for the aviators because i like their logo lol. plus the wright brothers were kinda cool.

[Laxtreme56]

First official sellout in UFL history. Hopefully the rain holds off and the no-show rate isn’t above the standard 10% or so. Should be an absolute electric crowd tomorrow night.

[GridironGirl]

who is watching tonight? if there are enough, maybe we can have a game thread.

i’ll be watching to get my fix. need to figure out my spring football opening day game day eats.

gotta use spring football to practice my fan-watching technique and get myself back in game-watching shape for CFL.

it will probably suck but it’s live pro football

[Paolo_X]

@GridironGirl

…ough, maybe we can have a game thread.i’ll be watching to get my fix. need to figure out my spring football opening day game day eats.gotta use spring football to practice my fan-watching technique and get myself back in game-watching shape for CFL. it will probably suck but it’s live pro football

YES! I am watching! I’ll probably watch whatever is not on ESPN on the rest of the weekend too.

We shall win either way!

We will be either surprised and inspired to amuse our friends after this weekend, or we will be disappointed and have another fine opportunity to jeer and to make apocalpytic predictions about another slow-motion train wreck!

WIN-WIN!

If you want to win as well, see you all in the game thread tonight!

[GridironGirl]

pretty sure Superb Owl and The Rouge will be doing regular fly-overs

[BetweenTheGoalposts]

I’ll be tuning in for sure. Really hoping the sold out crowd looks good on TV. I like the Louisville Kings colours.

Huge fan of their special teams unit.

[GridironGirl]

@BetweenTheGoalposts

Huge fan of their special teams unit.

i think you are a fan of all special teams units

[Laxtreme56]

I’ll be recording the game with my free preview of the Fox One app then watching when I get home tonight. Looking forward to DC-St. Louis tomorrow where 31.5k tickets have already been sold…err distributed according to St Louis media. I’ll probably catch highlights of the Texas showdown as thats the game I’m least interested in. Follow it up with Sunday night football on ESPN under the lights in Orlando.

[Paolo_X]

@Laxtreme56

… Looking forward to DC-St. Louis tomorrow where 31.5k tickets have already been sold…err distributed according to St Louis media. I’ll probably catch highlights of the Texas showdown as thats the game I’m least interested in. Follow it up with Sunday night football on ESPN under the lights in Orlando.

Alright, and good luck with your match in padel tonight too.

We have your back here.

Remember when anybody you meet on padel night tells you that they do not like padel (everybody please use the proper and Spanish pronunciaton PAH-DEL’), you go ahead and tell them to go to hell!

[Paolo_X]

Work on your eight teams first, UFL, and EAT IT, you spring football fanboys!

UFL week 1 game thread Mar 27-29 2025

Go figure, it was only one week ago, in their annual dumbass tradition, that we heard from those fanboys about some mythical 32-team expansion. You have to find enough solid players to field eight teams for solid play first before you attempt a league with the same amount of teams as the NFL!

[Paolo_X]

And that tired game in Dallas, with hundreds in the stands, ended on a big hit followed by a collective fart of relief by those forlorn souls who stayed for the entire game.

Whew! I’m glad that’s over!

I’ll see you all in the game thread next week, for I am not watching tomorrow night on ESPN.

[GridironGirl]

yea they need better teams and better attendance before expansion. the Gamblers and Kings are pretty weak i think, although it was first game without a pre-season. the play was very pre-season like.

[BetweenTheGoalposts]

Cooking up some more graphics for week 1;

[Paolo_X]

Well I do give Mike Repole credit for candour.

10K fans in Orlando in Week 1.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnitedFootballLeague/comments/1s86g8y/ufl_coowner_mike_repole_posts_about_week_1/

But to me, this report is NOT shocking news. You are having a sporting event during peak season for tourism in Florida, which starts approximately with the Daytona 500 near the start of spring training for baseball. The season runs through about late April.

Everybody living there is generally busy working, playing a sport in some recreational league, or otherwise engaging in tourism or enjoying themselves otherwise outdoors themselves instead of going to sporting events, except perhaps for the two NHL teams.

Here another of the reasonable comments in the thread:

Cultural-Comment-270

•14h ago

It was pretty clear during the off season Orlando was going to lag behind Columbus and Louisville at least initially. And Repole thinking Becht was going to be some great ambassador in Orlando always amused me, he gets like one diehard Storm fan replying to him on Twitter lol. The success of the St Louis market wasn’t down to Anthony Becht.

Still, they’ll have a good regular season team this year and I expect more people will show up by the end of the season. The crowd also looked more energetic than any Guardians crowd I ever saw in 2023. They were at Memphis levels, but so too was the football team so it was hard to blame Orlando. And with the small stadium it looked and sounded pretty good on TV, even if sales numbers aren’t where they want at least its not embarrassing.

Dallas is really the market to watch this season. They’ve got a good team and I’d be surprised if they break 10k outside of a playoff game.

Now I don’t agree with him that Orlando will be some massive success in time, except perhaps they could generate playoff interest in the post-season.

I do agree with him on Dallas, or more specifically Frisco, Texas. That was a bad look there. As one of the apologists proclaimed that it’s better than Arlington, just because it’s not as terrible a look as was Arlington does not mean there should not be cause for high concern for the team in Dallas, unlike from what I am hearing at least about the look in Orlando.

[Paolo_X]

@BetweenTheGoalposts

…Cooking up some more graphics for week 1;image1080×1350 234 KB

So for context, do we simply applaud the top half?

And what should happen to the bottom half? And should they be very bad things too?

Thank you for posting these stats, for this means now some of us will have to watch every punt in the games I watch with a keener eye and say things like:

“That one looked good there on hang time, and it looks like he did not outkick his coverage. In that light rain, it looks like he shimmied left and almost lost it on the follow-through, but he did still make solid contact with the ball.”

[GridironGirl]

@BetweenTheGoalposts

…Cooking up some more graphics for week 1;image1080×1350 234 KB

why is it an nfl photo tho?

[BetweenTheGoalposts]

@Paolo_X

… punt in the games I watch with a keener eye and say things like:“That one looked good there on hang time, and it looks like he did not outkick his coverage. In that light rain, it looks like he shimmied left and almost lost it on the follow-through, but he did still make solid contact with the ball.”

Yea some context would have been good lol

Robbins had the best punt of the week;

https://x.com/NoahBeauso/status/2038437203613815262

I would say that Rivers and Sanborn also had good hang times for their performances. Browning hit a 62 yard touchback so while it was a great hang time punt, it wasnt a good outcome. The rest left something to be desired, especially mac brown. Brown did force a fair catch (the only one we saw all week) at the 21 yard line.

Punting is a very context heavy position and hang times are not the only thing to consider. Here are the rest of the stats ranked by net avg.